Here, we don't have too many apt. complexes...we have many many many condo's that are rented out by the owners through property management co's. Those don't get shopped (that I know of, anyway. Maybe they are and I don't know.) But I have done apts for the couple of companies there are here, and they always get the ID's. When we were apt hunting in MD, we always got asked...which is kinda weird, since that is near you, but...the Bmore area is particularly crime ridden, so it might be a "better safe than sorry thing." You are lucky that they are not really doing it where you live. It might also have to do with state laws, too, but that I am not too sure about....I have heard some stories about people getting calls after the fact, though, that make me say, "shopper beware" anytime you have to use your real name and show id.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton